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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Woodchoppers and the Solicitor: Lost at Sea 1

A series of guest blogposts by S J L Patterson in
commemoration of the SS Waratah July
1909.

Jack Calder

In Tasmania,
a light drizzle had been falling as the two men prepared their equipment to spend
another day in the ancient and magnificent forests of Tasmania. As strong, young men, several years of
wielding the axe had honed their craft and strengthened their bodies to become
champion woodchoppers in Australia.
Shortly, they would be sailing to London
and their ship, the SS Waratah, was
already in Australian waters and working her way around the coast.

Alf Clarke

Early Australia was a
land of hardship and manual labour, with any gains being hard-won from
relentless hours of physical effort - building a homestead, erecting fencing,
raising cattle or clearing the densely-forested land to plant crops. This daily
physical effort raised strong men and competitions were to centre on their
skills such as horsemanship and woodchopping.The latter had fast become
an entertaining sport and after the first championships had taken place at
Latrobe in north-west Tasmania, in November
1891,Tasmania
had led with world champion axemen. Top placing in the Australian Championships
were critical to Alf Clarke and Jack Calder and, both men being highly skilled,
they had been successful with Alf Clarke acquiring the 1905 Australian
Championship title, whilst Jack Calder was the Tasmanian State Champion. This success had led to both
men being invited under Royal engagement to an exhibition for British Royalty
in London, to
compete against Canadian woodchoppers. Their preparations were being made to
take Australian logs with them for embarkation in Melbourne and Alf Clarke, a big man, had ordered
a new pair of size 14 boots especially for the occasion.

Meanwhile, the Waratah slipped away from Sydney’s CentralWharf at Millers Point,
at noon on Saturday 26 June 1909, after loading her cargo and embarking 38
passengers. Captain Josiah Edward Ilbery would have felt a twinge of sadness on
that cloudy day with showers as he had his last view of the Macquarie and
Hornsby Lighthouses, constructed from local sandstone, hewn from the area today
known as ‘The Rocks’ on Sydney Harbour. This was his final command as Commodore
of the Blue Anchor Line and hewas due to retire when this voyage ended
in London. The
ship would soon pass through The Heads and into the open ocean, visiting Melbourne and Adelaide, followed
by her Indian Ocean crossing to Durban,
South Africa.

SS Waratah

The Waratah was an imposing vessel and her extra promenade deck gave
her a somewhat top-heavy appearance, which distinguished her from the rest of
the ships of the Blue Anchor Line.On a
number of occasions, because she was so high, there had been berthing problems
due to the area exposed to strong winds, which had caused her hawsers holding
her to the wharf to snap like cotton strands.

One year before, on 5
November 1908, she had set off on her maiden voyage from London, England, to
Australia, boasting 100 first class cabins, 8 staterooms, a luxurious 'music
lounge' complete with a minstrel's gallery and a saloon with panels depicting
her namesake flower. As well as these luxurious quarters, the Waratah had room for 300 Third Class
passengers to serve the strong emigrant trade from Europe to Australia.

Having completed her maiden
voyage without mishap, her return to England did raise some discussions
between the owners and the builders about her stowage and the possibility of it
being responsible for some instability on that voyage. Little did they know
that these discussions would hold important ramifications in the future, when
the inquiry into her loss would again raise the issue of stowage and reports of
her instability. The disappearance of the SS Waratah remains as inexplicable and mysterious today, as it did 103
years ago. People all over the world have deliberated and written about this
ship. How was it possible for a modern liner of her time, travelling close to
shore on a well-used coast, to disappear without trace? Yet she did just that,
posing an intriguing mystery, as well as the tragedy of a ship vanishing with
all hands.

Port Melbourne Railway Pier
was off in the distance at 4.00pm on Thursday 1 July as the Waratah crossed PortPhilipBay
bound for Adelaide.
Passengers Alf Clarke and Jack Calder were settled into their Third Class
berths and mixed feelings had confronted them as Alf had said goodbye to his wife
Eva and four year old daughter Rosina and Jack Calder bid farewell to his
family. Yet, for these two young men, this was their first adventure outside Australia. The
thrill of the unknown and the new world they were about to explore, was
exhilarating. Alf and Jack keep their fitness by training daily on the deck,
boxing and skipping and keeping passengers well entertained.

As the Waratah steamed on her uneventful passage to Port Adelaide, Mr.
John Ebsworth, a Melbourne Solicitor, Freemason and father of six, had bade
farewell to his wife, Sarah Jane on 6th July 1909 and taken the Adelaide
Railway Express to Port Adelaide to board the Waratah that was anchored at Ocean Steamers Wharf. He
had been delayed by legal matters when the Waratah
took on her passengers in Melbourne but he was now on his way to London via
South Africa.

Agnes Grant Gosse Hay

At the same time Agnes
Grant Gosse Hay, widow of the highly respected businessman and Member of Parliament,
Alexander Hay, originally from Dunfermline, Fife,
Scotland, would be boarding the
Waratah after having travelled up to Adelaide from VictorHarbour. Accompanying
Agnes was her daughter Helen (Dolly) Gosse and companion Miss M Hesketh-Jones.

'Dolly' Gosse

The weather report issued
for South Australia
at 9pm on 6 July 1909 was, ‘Cloudy, generally with rain and squally winds
between NW and SW, strong on the coast and rough sea.’ Captain Ilbery had taken
on 6 new crew members in Adelaide
and as the 14 new passengers embarked, including John Ebsworth and Agnes Gosse
Hay’s party, destiny was closing in on them.